


Nivaliere: Pandora's Box

by ChemicalNovember



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cambions, Demons, Fantasy, Gen, Hell, Hint of M/M, M/M, dragon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 12:36:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10639980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChemicalNovember/pseuds/ChemicalNovember
Summary: Pandora's Box was opened and Hell was again brought to the mortal world.





	

 

I woke up in twilight. An earthquake had shaken the ground earlier; its magnitude was high enough to tear down the building where I was in. I would’ve look for survivors but I didn’t, maybe my heart consumed by hatred that I come to hate everyone to care. How foolish of humans to question their demise when nature struck their land, they don’t even give a damn if mother earth perishes. It’s somewhat meaningless to care if they live. The world was already tainted with evil. People made things much more complicated than how it’s supposed to be, it’s been imprinted to their brains to be thankful for what they have even if they were taking things for granted. And they can’t help but crave for better things. They’ve done actions they thought will make their living much better, oblivious to the fact that they just made it worst.

 

 “Damn, I didn’t know it’d be waaaay too awesome.” A teenage boy materialized in front of me. He’s dressed normally; white t-shirt under leather jacket, black skinny jeans and combat boots. His eyes were glowing red, his teeth were as sharp as shark’s and he has a deformed bat wings. I would’ve thought he’s a vampire, but vampires don’t have wings. Beside him was a girl who was about the same age as he is. She’s wearing a uniform, which made me think that the monstrous thing might be her demon boyfriend. I can’t believe my eyes but he’s real.

 

“Did you like my offering?” the girl asked as she clung to the half human’s arms. Clear sign that she’s giving herself to the boy who appears to be a fallen angel.

 

“Yes, but those lives won’t give me satisfaction ‘till I drink blood.” the boy said, he pulled her closer to him and started to kiss her neck. “Itadakimasu.”

 

Wow, what a sight to behold. I want to throw up. I was about to look away when the monstrous being tore the flesh of the girl’s neck and drinks her blood without fashion. My whole body feels cold out of shock, I can’t move from where I was.

 

“Aaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!” The girl screamed in a high-pitched tone. She flailed, trying to get away from his grip. But the monster was obviously much stronger than she is. Her eyes directed towards where I am, pleading to save her, but I know it’s too late.

 

“Ah~” the boy moaned as he had quenched his thirst. He released the girl and she falls to the ground with a thud. She’s dead. “First meal.”

 

My feet were still glued to the ground. His eyes shifted to me and it twinkled, I want to run but it seemed that his eyes have paralysing powers. He took a step forward to me. His mouth was still dripping of the crimson fluid from his kill.

 

“Young master.” He said. “The Pandora’s box has been opened.”

 

Never in my life had I been so confused. I just witnessed a demon make a meal of his victim and then call me young master. WHO WOULDN’T BE CONFUSED OF THAT?

 

 I was about to ask what he’s talking about when a humongous vulture-like bird swooped down and lifted me off the ground.

 

“What the hell!?” The bird was as big as an SUV. Its scorched and corroded flesh made its hideousness ten times awful. “Put me down you damn bird.”

 

It turned its head to me, pure white eye staring back at me. Its harsh, raucous cries sound like it was laughing. To make it worse, the sound was making my ears bleed. Its caws attracted the attention of its kind and they began to flock around us.

 

“Young master!” Monster Boy called out to me. His wings were not as deformed as it seems earlier; maybe it was because he had quenched his thirst.

 

“Help me!” I cried, but the decaying vulture tightened its grip on my shoulder. Its razor sharp talons were already piercing through my shoulders.

 

Monster Boy pulled a bone-like spear from his back, but I think it really was one of his bones. He aimed the spear to the monster and threw it. The weapon perforated the bird’s right wing.

 

Monster Boy drew another bone spear from his back this time it hits the monstrous bird’s head.

 

“Young master!” He yelled as the dead vulture plummeted down to the ruined city. The searing pain was awful as I remove the vulture’s talons from my shoulders before I become as lifeless as the winged creature that held me captive for a minute.

 

Monster Boy caught me mid air. He pulled another spear and directed it to the flock heading our on way. Soon as the spear impaled one of the vulture-like monsters, it struck charged energy and affects the surrounding monster with electricity like a plasma globe. They were electrocuted and before long went kaboom.

 

The ruins of the entire Veil City was bathed in faint orange light of the setting sun from a bird’s eye view. Almost all buildings crumbled down to the ground except for 5 which are still standing tall. The location of the buildings created a pentagram, and in the middle of the pentagram buildings was a tall tower which reminds me of Temen ni Gru of Devil May Cry.

 

“Young master, are you alright?” He winged-creature asked. His breath stinks of blood, though I don’t mind as long as he won’t eat me.

 

“Yes,” I replied. We’ve land safely on the ground. The fallen street sign reads ‘Daefil Street.’ On my left was a mountain of rubble of residential building that collapsed. “Who are you?”

 

Monster Boy kneeled down on the ground, his right hand was placed on his chest. “I am your familiar spirit. I’ve been serving you for centuries.”

 

“I don’t understand.” confusion was clouding my mind.

 

“We don’t have much time. I’ll explain it to you on the way.”

 

***

 

Monster Boy has been carrying me on his arms as he flew towards the Hellcrath Tower. We’ve been in the air for a while but he’s still not saying anything about what’s happening.

 

“Who are you?” I asked, breaking the silence.

 

His complexion was cadaverous pale, but his irises were not red anymore; it’s become a pair of dark brown eyes. He smiled at my question. There was no longer the trace of blood on his turned-into-humans teeth. But his canines remained sharp as vampires.

 

“Hi I am Crayon, your familiar and household servant.” He imitated Baymax at his very best. “Joke! I am your familiar spirit. Doing your house chores is not one of my jobs, yet still, I do it for you anyway.

 

“Familiar spirit, what kind of thing is that?” Honestly, who would believe that? “And seriously, I named you Crayon? You must be kidding me.”

 

“Well, instead of Crayon you started calling me Cray by the time you reached the age of 16. And by the way, this is my human form ‘cause you see, back then I took the appearance of a dog. And don’t ask me why you named me Crayon, you never told me the reason why. So, yeah I am your familiar spirit. Crayon Nivaliere, protector of the guardian of Pandora’s Box. You were entrusted to guard the Pandora’s Box, because as you can see, you’re one of the middle class witches of Fritillaria, and last blood of Nivalis.”

 

“What does that mean?”I asked, I’m not quite following what he’s saying.

 

“It means you’re meant to inherit Pandora’s Box but due to bitter turn of events, you tasked me to guard Pandora’s Box and you shouldered the curse of being mortal for 6 lifetimes. Kind of horrible if you asked me.”

 

“Wait, so you’re telling me that I’m a male witch who’s entrusted to guard the Pandora’s Box?” I asked. “I am a guardian?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Then why am I here? If I am the guardian, doesn’t that mean that I have to have the Box in order to protect it?”

 

“As I already said, you shouldered the curse, and I’m not able to do something about the Box without you. You just told me to keep an eye on it and if something happened, I should call you.”

 

“Why can’t I remember those things?”

 

“You instructed me to wipe out your memory so that you won’t miss your powers. Aaaand so that less monsters would come get you.”

 

“Huh.” I huffed disbelievingly. This is twisted and confusing. “If I asked you to guard it, then why has it been opened?”

 

“Exander, young master. A deacon of Mirror 6.” He said,

 

“Exander? Deacon of Mirror?”

 

“Yep, god’s I didn’t know that I’ve got to explain everything to you. You do this on purpose to piss me off, huh?”

 

I stared at him blankly. I’m clueless as ever. “Nope. Who’s Exander?”

 

He face palmed and he almost dropped me, but he’s quick to secure me on his arms again.

 

“Somewhat a long story.”

 

“Make it short.” I said.

 

He gave me a look, but he eventually gives in. “He was from the very long line of dragon’s blood. They cannot produce their own kind sexually so when they die, their teeth are the only things that remain, and the goddess of their temple is the mother of dragons, and she is the one to plant them on her Holy grounds. Once nectar and blood watered them, a bud will sprout out to generate the next dragon, yet even if the seed or the teeth were numerous as it was planted; only one has to live. In some rare cases, more than one could generate from the bud if the goddess had linked strong emotions to it.” 

 

 “Like twins or triplets?”

 

“Yes, and it was the case of Exander. He has a twin brother. Cion.”

 

My mouth formed an ‘o’ shape, “Was that bad? Why did he open the Pandora’s Box?”

 

“Curiosity of a child.” He explained, “Exander and Cion has a temporary contract with their familiar, unlike yours, your contract with me is for a lifetime. The goddess gave them both a cambion. Either a gift or a test, it’s obviously as test since cambion’s are half-human offspring of an incubus and succubus, which are sex demons. A typical cambion is cunning and evil, with a beautiful, alluring appearance and ability to control other people. Cambions are sometimes referred to as sexual vampires due to the way they entice their victims into sexual activity for an evil purpose. But focusing on the ability to control other people, Exander was the first to give in.”

 

The tower loomed closer to us as Cray glide the bloody river of pain. Acheron.

 

There were lifeless bodies impaled to poles. Their blood flows to the river. We reached the first gate. It was ice cold, chained, ivory gate. Cray took out round obsidian stone and placed it in the middle of the hollow space of the gate. The stone glowed faintly and the chains dissolved.

 

“Where are we?” I asked.

 

Cray’s combat boots clacked as he walked inside the icy corridor.

 

“Entrance of Hellcrath tower.” He said, “We need to get to the 5th circle to stop the augmentation of the demonic energy in his soul.”

 

“You still haven’t explained how Exander gave in.”

 

“Promise of power. Probably, the cambion convinced him that he could win the love of the goddess through power. A child seeking for attention will do anything to get what he wants. So, there goes the stage of unleashing the remaining plagues of Pandora’s Box and consuming their power to make him stronger. His love for the goddess is the same as how mankind was blinded by the price printed on a piece of paper that they destroy the greatest treasure far more valuable than gold and jewels. He’s turning his back to her in order to be the right one for her.”

 

“I don’t get it.”

 

He let’s out a frustrated sigh. “I know right. Even I didn’t get the whole situation. But as you have explained to me back then, there has to be only one Priest for the goddess’s temple. The ceremony of the Priest is also the marriage to the Goddess. So I am very thankful to you, Young Master. Our eternal bond is as strong as marriage and I didn’t have a rival.”

 

I whacked him on the head. “Don’t make our bond as a joke; I don’t see you as my wife.”

 

He gave me toothy grin. “Well… for me you are. I can be your husband, you know?”

 

I rolled my eyes heavenwards. Who knew that of all the things I could’ve chosen, I get to adopt a pet like him.

 

At the end of the corridor was a huge metal door decorated with horns; the entrance to the first circle. The vast room was empty aside from skeleton statues and the big Clock ticking in the middle of eternal double staircase.

 

Cray flew us over the first landing of stairs; there was the first heaven rise circle. “The fifth landing is our destination.”

 

“How are we going to stop Exander?”

 

“We’ll figure it out.” He said,

 

“So you drag me here without a plan?” I infuriately asked.

 

My damned familiar had the guts to chuckle and rubbed the back of his head. Unbelivable.

 

“If Exander is at the 5th circle, then where’s Cion? And the goddess?”

 

“Preparing for the war against demons if we failed to stop him.”

 

“And whose fault is that?”

 

“Yours.” He said as a matter of fact.

 

“How did this became my fault? I was serving my punishment in the mortal world. And you haven’t explained the crime I’ve done yet, or whatever it was that made me live as a plain boring human for 6 lifetimes.”

 

“We don’t have time. Just do what we usually do.”

 

“How am I supposed to know what we usually do?”

 

He smiled at me. “When it’s time, you’ll know.”

***

 

Jumping to the heaven rise circle was the same as the feeling I’ve once read in a book. Soon as our foot landed on the clock-like hoop, it springs us forward to the air like a bullet tearing through.

 

We’ve reached the 5th circle. The door was made out of iron; the swirling patterns were dripping with water. “Don’t touch the water… It’ll burn your skin. I’m the only one who’s allowed to melt you when touched.”

 

I glared at him.

 

The iron door has the similar hollow space where Cray put the obsidian stone earlier. But this time, the iron door was unlocked by a blue laced agate.

 

The door swung open and chaos greeted us. A hundred feet below us were thousands of demons and suffering souls, swimming on the maelstrom in the sea of fire, were crawling to get to the door where we’re standing.

 

Cray spread his bat wings again. The door closed shut when Cray’s foot left the ground.

 

“So where is Exander?” I asked.

 

He kept his gaze ahead. “The incubator.”

 

I followed the direction where his eyes were looking. Ahead was a floating piece of land ghosted in thick fog.

 

The single, human-sized rosebud was thickly covered in thorny vines amongst the murky forest of dead trees became perceivable through the mist as we came close to it.

 

“Is that the incubator?” I asked,

 

Cray nodded. When we reached the floating land it’s become strangely quiet, like a cemetery at witching hour. Mist was slowly masking the rosebud incubator. We hurried towards where Exander was being developed into a full pledged demon.

 

The vitreous bud appears to have contained the water from River Styx, it’s quite horrifying to see a twelve year old boy being trapped inside it. His flesh seemed like it was burned by acid. His eye sockets were hollow and his right cheek was completely exposing flesh and his teeth. Majority of his face were flesh and bones, the same goes for his body

 

 “Here.” Cray gave me a bone-y dagger to cut off the thorny vines. I began working while he took the other side. It felt strange as things were going simple and smooth, but of course that was just a wishful thinking of a protagonist.

 

“No matter what you do, the vines will just grow back.” A mellifluous voice of a man said, “I won’t let you take him. He’s mine.”

 

I turned my head to its direction but there was no one besides Cray. I glanced at my familiar, but as fast as light he pushed me aside. I tumbled to the soft grass. The fog was getting thicker.

 

“Young master, are you okay?” Cray asked before I heard someone cough, the kind of how movie stars sounds like when they’re coughing up blood whenever they were stabbed or… Wait… Don’t tell me he’s…

 

“Cray are you okay?” I ran blindly towards his voice. A hand suddenly sent me flying further away from them.

 

Silver light had flashed before a squall had cleared up the fog.

 

Cray was above the air with a thin double edge sword. A creature appeared in front of him, it brandished its whips to him. Cray blocked it with his sword but the whip managed to reach his shoulder. He howled in pain and dropped his sword. He, as well, fell to the ground.

 

I ran to his side. Without my memory, it will be impossible for us to stand against what we’re facing. Cray’s blood was coloring the moist grass.

 

Mist swirled beside Exander and takes form, seems like the creature was Exander’s cambion. His long hair was the color of silver, and eyes were icy blue. Unlike Cray, the cambion was wearing white clergy robe. He reminds me of Liu Fei Long of Viewfinder (Don’t even google who that man is).

  
“Exander is mine. He will be King, the bringer of hell.” The ripped sleeve had exposed the long gash on the cambion’s forearm; he licked the bleeding wound with his long tongue to heal himself.

 

“Are you okay?” I asked Cray who was clutching his arm. The wound looks awful; the flesh surrounding it was charred and rapidly decaying, causing blue and green molds to appear.

 

“It damn hurts. Don’t let that whip reach you, no magic can withstand the pain it inflicts.” He panted; his eyes were tearing up, “The whip of Acheron.”

 

Cray pulled a dagger from his leg scabbard. He didn’t bother to take off his leather jacket and quickly removed the smoking parts of his flesh. The removed skin lets out a hissing noise. He’s losing so much blood. He took out a small vial from his pocket and drank it. Must be a healing potion. His ragged breathing was far from returning to normal.

 

Cray had not even yet fully healed the wound of the whips when the cambion extended his hand as if reaching for something and the whip reappeared. He waved it around the air; the golden bangles on his wrists were creating a beautiful and calming sound. My eyes were getting heavy, so was Cray’s.

 

I shook the drowsiness off and slapped Cray’s cheek to wake him. “Wake up, Cray!”

 

“Ouch! Young Master, that hurts you know!” He shook his head and tried his best to focus his glaring eyes to mine.

 

“I know, don’t give me that look. I can’t have you dozing off when I’m somewhat useless now since I don’t remember a damn spell.”

 

Cray stood up again, his face contorted in pain. Just then I noticed the hole on the side of his shirt was painted deep red. Maybe I wasn’t able to notice it earlier because his leather jacket was obscuring it.

 

“Cray, you’ve been stabbed!” I said, stating the most obvious thing in the situation.

 

“It’s nothing,” he said like most heroes in television always say. He drew a long spear from his back and threw it to the ground where the cambion was standing. It created a sphere that electrified the cambion.

 

“The electrifying sphere won’t last long. We need to join together our souls to awaken the locked away part of your entity.”

 

“How?” I asked. He could’ve told me about the awakening of entity long time ago before we even get here.

 

He grabbed a handful of my hair at the back of my head and touched our foreheads together. His breath was warm. “Just look into my eyes. Don’t look away until you found the locked away memory in the windows of my soul. Got it?”

 

I nodded.

 

“We’ll do this the same way as we made our pact.”

 

He put his lips to mine. His mouth was warm and that warmth was being transferred to me. The pupils of my eyes dilated as the transference of magic and exposure of the locked away memories unveiled before my eyes.

 

 He pulled away, I can feel new source of life flowing through my veins. I wrapped my hands where his wounds are and chanted a hymn to completely heal him. The gash disappeared living no marks behind.

 

I heard the sound of the bangles again, this time we both dodged the whip. I took off Cray’s onyx necklace, it morphed into a crossbow. I aimed it towards the cambion and it fired laser-like arrows imbued with demon energy. As fast as light did the arrow travelled to the cambion, he failed to avoid and it hits him on his chest. He took a step back.

 

“Go free Exander from his incubation.” I ordered to my familiar. He bowed down and quickly glided over to the deacon. The cambion noticed this and waved the whip in the air to attacked Cray. I was fast enough to block his attack to him by shooting another demon-powered arrow.

 

Cambion turned his gaze to me, he dashed towards my direction.  My crossbow loaded then fired multiple purple laser beams to the cambion, leading him to his demise. He disintegrated into a pile of ash. The wind swept away what he has become.

 

“Young master, I need your help here.” Cray called out to me. I hurriedly knelt beside him. Exander appeared better than he was earlier. Now, he looks like a normal boy who was covered with thick reddish liquid, maybe it was because of the rosebud incubator. “Is he okay?”

 

I checked Exander’s pulse. His heart was still beating. “Yeah, he almost crossed the border of being a human. The demon essence and ritual performed wasn’t completed. The cambion planned to conceive him again and fed him his own kind to turn him.”

 

“What should we do now?”

 

“We cannot undo the mayhem that broke out to the human world; we have to annihilate the escaped demons.”

 

Cray lifted the sleeping Exander on his arms. “And what of this boy?”

 

“We should take him to his twin brother and to the mother of dragons first.” I retrieved the steampunk decorative box placed deep inside the heart of the rosebud. “Then we’ll take care of the rest.”

***

 

 When Cray told me about the twin brother, I didn’t expect their hair would be the opposite of each other. Exander’s was jet black while Cion’s was ivory.

 

“Exander!!!” Cion ran towards us the moment he entered the throne room. Behind him, the goddess presents herself in the appearance of dragon. Her scales were the orangey yellow color of topaz and her wings were lemon quartz. “Is my brother alright?”

 

“He was breadths away from being turned into a full pledged demon because of the consummation of soul inside Pandora’s Box.” Cray explained, “And he’s been soused in the water of the Styx for too long.”

 

The goddess turned herself into her human form. Her hair was the same color as Exander’s, and it seems that Cion got the same mole under her right eye. “Then, I have no choice but to incinerate him.”

 

“No!” Cion cried, “You can’t incinerate Exander! He’s my brother!”

 

The goddess turned to him. “He failed the test.”

 

“He was manipulated.” He defended his twin. “He’s too pure to even notice that Rai was manipulating him, and he loves you so much that he wants to prove himself strong!”

 

“Your brother is dead.”  The goddess spoke coldly. It’s quite obvious that she’s telling it more to herself than to her son’s. Cray and I exchanged looks, I wonder if we really have to hear this. “He’s became a demon. If he opened those eyes he’ll be invincible.”

 

“He’s still there! I can feel his heartbeat.” Cion placed his hand over Exander’s chest. Even I can feel it. There was a heartbeat, but faint and almost nonexistent. “See? My brother is there!”

 

“Enough, Cion-”

 

“No.” Cion stared at the goddess dead in the eye. “No matter what you say, I won’t let you incinerate him. I’ll protect him from you.”

 

The goddess held his gaze, they had a silent argument trough glaring contest. Cion’s determination to save his brother from the mother of the dragons didn’t waver.

 

“I will protect him.” Cion repeated.

 

“Fine then,” she said,

 

“What?” The three of us said in unison.

 

The stern look on the goddess’s face was melted away and was replaced with a smile. “I’ll grant him his life, but it comes with a price.”

 

 “What is it?” Cion asked, his hand not leaving his brother’s chest.

 

“You’ll bear his immortality, and he’ll bear the curse to keep himself mortal.”

 

“I agree, as long as I can be with my brother.”

 

The goddess nodded to us before she vanished in the thin air.

 

“What now?” Cray asked. As if on cue, Exander stirred from his sleep.

 

“Exander.” Cion said excitedly as he waited for his brother’s awakening.

 

Exander opened his eyes. I was expecting to see the same azure color his brother, and the goddess has. But, the payment for his mortality had taken those away.

 

Exander’s eye sockets were hollow.


End file.
